Becoming the best athlete you can be can assist you in becoming the best version of yourself. Here’s how.
Role models serve an important purpose when we’re growing up, and for many kids, it’s a sports role model. Young athletes dream about throwing the winning or hitting a 9th-inning home run, just as their role models do.
While being the Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, or Aaron Judge is out of reach for many young athletes, “greatness” comes in a variety of shapes and forms. Fundamentally, it involves being the best athlete you can be. At the same time, it’s important to remain comfortable in your own skin or, put another way, to be humble always.
It’s important to get up every morning, look in the mirror, and be confident that you’ve done everything you need to do to be the best you can be. You are the one you must satisfy, including being committed to your studies. To be a solid student-athlete is the ticket.
Approaching athletics that way goes a long way toward teaching you how to balance responsibilities as an adult and grow into being the best version of yourself.
It helps you manage the inevitable ups and downs–a bad game, a loss, a bad call, etc. It will keep you level-headed, and focused on why you love the game and why you are out on the field, court, ice, pitch, or wherever else your sport is played.
If you internalize this advice, then you can’t lose, no matter what the scoreboard says.
This is an excellent article that I think the younger generation needs to read. It couldn’t be said more perfectly. Wonderful article Matthew Paris!